Funeral Flower
by RicardianScholar Clark-Weasley
Summary: sequel to The Adventure of Being Normal. with her husband dead, Rose has no ties to Earth and travels through time and space, not alone but with her baby granddaughter, Susan


She looked at the mirror again.

She hated what she was looking at. She hated looking into the mirror but something deep down wanted to see who she was. She was a broad, tall, heavy woman. With thick jaw, large nose and forehead and tanned skin that was worn out like a woman who worked every day of her life. She had empty, flat, dead eyes that were black. Pure black. No almost this time. Her lips were thin and unsuited, not wanting, for lipstick. Her hair was dark but greying slightly. She was no older than fifty.

She looked like a widow.

She definitely dressed as a widow. Long black dress with long sleeves and nothing special about it. Her shoes were definitely grandma shoes, smart and boring and black. She wore skin coloured tights and white pearl earrings but that was the only other colours she wore.

The only she wanted to wear.

Because she was a widow. She will always be a widow now. For some reason she couldn't cry. As if she was so dead inside that she had become emotionless. She was so used to losing him now that she had given up crying about it.

The Doctor had always left her. Or try to get her to leave him. And now it was permanent. He was dead or in another universe and she was stuck. Stuck being the Time Lady in a universe that only been her home since she was twenty seven. The other Doctor, the one in the other universe had barely been in her thoughts the past thirty years. She had been happy. Ever so happy.

She was a mother, a wife, a working woman and happy.

Then she regenerated. Her children grew up and started their own lives. Her husband tried to get rid off her only to keep her and then die in that fucking car accident. The one that made her regenerate again. The one that made her look like this old, grieving woman.

She no longer recognised herself as Rose Noble – nee Tyler. She was someone else, completely.

"Mum"

She turned to see her eldest daughter leaning against the door frame, breathing unevenly. Normally Donna Carbone would be elegant and controlled. Her sleek brown hair styled every morning, her nails done weekly and her clothes all designer. Ever since she got pregnant with her first child her controlled beauty was chipped away, bit by bit. Eight months along and she wore baggy clothes, hair shoved in a ponytail and nails bitten away during nervous moments.

"Donna, how are you?" Rose asked in a strange accent. Italian probably, her son in law Antonio was Italian and probably influenced this body. He did say she looked remarkably like his grandmother.

Of course he had a red mark for about a week after.

On both sides since Donna was feeling all emotional being pregnant and just losing her father.

"I was wondering if you thought more about my offer"

"Donna..." Rose said shaking her head sadly. "You can't be serious"

"Two hearts but one body, I can't raise that, and I can't be a mother to an alien baby" Donna said desperately. "It may sound heartless but I'm not cut out for that. I'll end up being a terrible mother and I won't ever give it the right environment but you can. Time Baby in a time machine. It'll be perfect"

"I don't think I can handle a baby" Rose said. "I need time alone. I need to grieve and feel a little less empty without your father by my side" she sighed heavily. "I can't be a mother all over again. You are married and becoming one yourself, Jack is out fighting aliens, Michael is living it big, Christopher is in Uni and MJ is touring across Europe. I can't be there holding your hands all the way through. I just chose to stay until after my first grandchild is born"

"I know I know you're going through all of this shit and I know I'm a terrible person wanting you to do my job. But Mum...I'm not Jack. I don't think aliens are fascinating. I don't think they make a good drama like Michael or a good experiment like Chris. I'm no MJ who won't think nothing of it. No offense Mum, but I just want to be a normal human"

"Think on it. Sleep on it. Wait till you hold it in your arms before you go off saying you don't want the baby" Rose said sternly. "I've seen people leave their kids because they don't want them. It never ends well"

Donna made a strange whimpering sound. "Well I don't have that long really; I've been in labour for the past hour"

"You irresponsible little girl!"

DWDWDWDWDWDWDWDWDW

Her name was Susan Rose Carbone and she was hers. No one else's, just her little angel. A snow white little angel bundled in a pink blanket and in her black covered arms.

Suddenly Rose didn't mind as much that she was taking care of a baby instead of her own daughter. Donna had held the baby for over five hours before shoving her in Rose's arms and said she didn't want her.

Susan had rejected taking milk from Donna and that had cemented all reconsiderations from her original thought. Jack had been disappointed, Antonio didn't say anything just cried silently and the others didn't know. They'll just think the baby was stillborn.

"We flowers have to stick together, don't we love?" she murmured to the sleeping baby. She pressed a kiss on her forehead and strode along the hallway to her bedroom. A plain, undecorated room with a bed, wardrobe, dressing table, cot and nappy changing table. The bare essentials. "Because that's what you are, a beautiful little flower" she said more to herself than to the baby as she laid it down in the cot.

Susan. Susan Rose. A beautiful name but obviously an attempt to suck up to Rose. To convince her to take the baby. Her namesake. Susan, was Hebrew for lily, Rose knew this since before Donna was born. She had briefly considered it and the Doctor was torn on having his daughter secretly named after a flower like he had been aiming for or having his daughter with the same name of his dead granddaughter.

In the end Rose chose names that didn't cause as much grieve as the name Susan did.

A little part of her was glad that the Doctor was dead. Because he would be so disappointed with Donna, who has always, been his favourite. And he would have to deal having another granddaughter called Susan, and that might just kill him itself.

She left the room and headed back to the console room. It wasn't much, just white and bland with a sparkling brand new console.

She moved slowly and calmly round it, not going anywhere just sending it into the vortex away from Earth. She would wait until Susan could at least walk until she started exploring. Until then she would stick to briefly visiting for supplies.

She fingered the ring she wore on a chain under her dress. "Rose Tyler had died, a very long time ago. In Canary Wharf. She died a while ago in an invasion in this world. She can't keep on living when there's no Doctor, no family" she mused out loud to the ceiling. Her TARDIS gave a confused hum. It was still a baby too. "I'll pick a name. A strange name that everyone will remember. So no one will ever know Rose Tyler again"

She fiddled with the console again and remembered the old TARDIS. The one where she broke into and looked into its heart just to save her Doctor. To make Jack immortal, to destroy every stinking dalek out there and to end the Time War. Just for him.

"I am the Wolf" she announced with finality. "Rose Tyler is dead now. Only the Wolf lives on"

DWDWDWDWDWDWDWDWDW

"Nan! Nan! Look what I drawed! Isn't it pretty?"

"Drew, sweetie, not drawed" the Wolf corrected as she took the picture our of her chubby granddaughter's hands. It was a simple stick people drawing, one tall done in black and one very small in pink. "Oh it is lovely, me and you I take it?"

Susan nodded and grinned, showing all the baby teeth that she had grown in the past two years. During the teething time, the Wolf had almost thrown out the toddler during one of Susan's fits. She forgot how grizzly babies get when their teeth were growing. On the whole the two year old was well behaved if not hyper.

"You like it?" Susan asked.

"I love it" the Wolf said warmly, putting the picture down on the arm of her chair and then picking Susan up onto her lap. "Just like I love you" she said blowing a raspberry on Susan's forehead causing her to giggle and squirm.

She was beautiful child, smaller than most with thick short locks of dark hair and large deep black eyes that contrasted with her lily white skin. She looked like a fairy changeling or an angel. The Wolf had dressed her in pale colours after she found bright ones made Susan look a bit too sickly. Susan always wore the softest pinks and blues with palest of greens and yellows. She looked more like a box of pastels half the time.

Susan was also a bright child, only two and already knew the basics of maths and English. She was more of a five year old than two. "Nan, can we go out tomorrow?" Susan asked pleadingly. "I'd like to play in a park. Please?"

The Wolf hesitated. She was reluctant to take Susan out. The last few times went smoothly no incidents at all but the few times before that the Wolf had to cling onto Susan tightly as the world around them fell to pieces.

"We'll see" she said finally. Hating the fact she's becoming one of those guardians who lock their children away for their own safety. Damn when did she get so smothering? "How about a story before I make lunch?"

"Yes please!"

The Wolf smiled fondly at Susan's enthusiasm. "Once Upon a Time, lived a lonely man who travelled through time and space in a blue box. This man had a friend called Rose and together they had many adventures. One day they decided to meet Elvis a famous singer and a king of rock n' roll, however..."

Susan watched her grandmother with wide eyes as she retold a story of a television stealing people's faces including the Doctor's friend. She let out a little shriek when the Doctor made his confrontation and almost fell from the tower. She cheered when her grandmother mentioned a party and how a boy started to make amends with his father.

"I'm glad Tommy and his Daddy made friends again. Even if the Daddy no longer lived with the Mummy" Susan said snuggling up to her grandmother. "Nan...what were my Daddy and Mummy like?"

The Wolf swallowed. "Well your Daddy was a quiet and polite man from Italy, very wealthy but never flaunted it. They had a summer home near Rome. Very beautiful place. But your Mummy...well she was precious to me. To your grandfather especially. She was beautiful, quite rude at times but oh ever so creative. I should read you one of her books; I have it somewhere in the library"

"That would be nice" Susan whispered. "Nan...for lunch can we have fairy cakes and orange juice"

"A sandwich first" the Wolf said sternly. "And then we could watch a film before nap time if you like"

"No! I might get my face sucked off!"

It took a lot of control to not laugh. The Wolf knew this would happen, becoming a sister at the age of twenty two taught her many mothering skills. One of them being what stories have what effect on children. Donna and Jack were scared of the TV for three whole months until Jack attacked it and chewed on the wires. The Doctor had not been happy about that. Michael used to hide behind the sofa until he thought it was safe to come out. Christopher didn't even step into the living room until he was four and MJ would cling to her father until he proved the TV was safe.

The story about the Wire was a good way to stop children watching telly for a while and get them to try other things.

Shame the Doctor and Rose never met an alien possessed computer that could have helped in getting the children more involved in other things as well.

DWDWDWDWDWDWDWDW

"Susie, you're it"

"Hey no fair! That was unexpected! And don't call me Susie!"

"Nah! Nah! Nah-nah!"

Susan growled at the annoying boy, her cheeks growing red with rage and her little hands curled into fists. "ARRRRRRRRRRRRRGH!" she screamed chasing after him. "I'm gonna get you, you brat!"

She was five years old, her hair was cropped short in a page boy style and she wore a little grey skirt with white tights, black boots and a red cardigan over a pale pink t-shirt. Her complexion was still pale but she no longer looked sickly in bright colours, thank god. Her grandmother had left her in this strange park with various humans and aliens playing. There were strange swings and slides, some looked safer than others.

She didn't know where her grandmother went. She just knew she couldn't leave unless she was hungry, thirsty or needed the toilet. Even then she was shown to the only places she could go before her grandmother left stern threats of being grounded. Susan believed her grandmother was going to do something dangerous and was worried for her. But being a child she quickly forgot her worries when she made some friends and played with them.

They were all different species, different skin colours from the normal black or white to the bright orange and neon green and different cultures. Some of the more quieter ones didn't join in the games with others due to genders differences. Something about not allowed to interact with boys/girls until they were of age to marry. This one boy, Blarg, was a bright orange Elven looking boy who was incredibly annoying and very hyper.

"Tag!" Susan yelled pushing him roughly.

"Ow! Susie you aren't suppose to push, just tap!" he whined. "Don't you know how to play properly?" Susan looked at the floor and didn't answer. "You don't, do you? Why not? Everyone knows how to play tag!"

"I don't play with other children very often" Susan admitted. "I travel a lot with my Nan and concentrate on my studies"

"That's no fun!"

"No it isn't" Susan said. She sometimes wished she could have a sibling, someone to play with, and someone to keep her company while her Nan was doing her stuff.

A loud explosion interrupted her thoughts and people around them began to scream. Nan! That had to be Nan stopping some idiot from harming the planet! Parents began picking their kids up or dragging them away back to the safety of their homes. Blarg's mother was dragging him away and he was reaching out to her looking a little sad and hopeful.

"See you tomorrow Susie!"

No you won't, she thought sadly, I'll be long gone by then. You might see me in fifteen years if you're lucky but the chances of me coming back to this planet in your lifetime are very slim.

She sat on a bench waiting patiently for her Nan. It was almost dark when the woman strolled into the play area with an aura of extreme calm and authority. Something no one else can project but her.

"Hello Susan, did you have fun today?"

"Yes Nan. I made some friends and learnt to play tag" Susan replied. "How was your day?"

"It was...enlightening. Lets go back home and have dinner, then you should probably have a bath and get ready for bed. I'll allow you to have some time to read before I announce lights out"

Susan smiled and took her Nan's hand, leaning into her ever so slightly as she was led to a climbing frame that no child had ever bothered to play on. On this climbing frame was a little keyhole hidden to the natural eye. Inside the climbing frame was home.

DWDWDWDWDWDWDWDWDW

A few weeks later the Wolf took her granddaughter to an Arabian like market. The weather was hot and suffocating for humans but for the locals who lived there it was perfect for their biology. The Wolf was unaffected by the heat due to her low body temperature. Susan however used the sunny weather to wear a summer dress, sunglasses and sandals. It was rare for her to dress up in different seasonal wear.

The Wolf enjoyed the bargaining market; she had brought quite a bit of food and little trinkets already and was looking at some white cloth with little exotic flower prints on. She was wondering if she could sew in this body...she never tried it in any lifetime and it might be time to learn. She could make Susan a dress....

"What do you think, Susan?"

There was no reply.

"Susan?"

She turned to see no little girl at all. She couldn't see a girl in a summer dress and short dark hair anywhere.

"Susan!"

The market stall owner snickered. "Should have taken better care of your girl. There are all sorts of slave trade going around, especially for pretty little children"

She turned to him with such an icy burning hating look that he paled and stumbled backwards. "Shut up" she said in a snarling, cold and dark voice.

He trembled as she stormed off, black dressing blowing backwards like some sort of cape, he felt like he just saw a dangerous animal. Something more ethereal and powerful than anyone in the whole universe.

He felt like he met the true Bad Wolf of the fairy tales.

DWDWDWDWDWDWDWDWDW

She was crying.

Susan can't remember a time she cried so much. Even when she fell and hurt herself, she always just picked herself up and had her Nan sort out the injuries without a tear falling. But now these bad men had taken her, they made bruises on her arms from where their fingers dug in, rope burns on her wrist when they tied their knots to hard, and their grins were so sinister, so creepy that it scared her.

She was trapped in a little cell all by herself with no one to save her. Nan probably didn't even know she was gone. She was going to die or worse be tortured and hurt till she gave up and died.

She let out a whimpering sob and her arms wrapped themselves tightly around her as she tried to comfort herself.

"Don't cry" a soft boy voice said from the cell next to her. "Please don't cry. You're too pretty to cry"

She looked up and saw a small boy with dark hair and bright blue eyes. He worse ragged beige clothing and didn't look very local. He grinned at her and she couldn't help the little flutter in her heart. He was a beautiful boy.

"I'm Jack" he said. "What's your name?"

"Susan" she sniffled.

"That's pretty. Don't worry Susan, someone will save us. I'm sure! The Time Agency will find me and they'll set us free"

"Time Agency?"

"A bunch of time travellers. They sort out all sorts of problems. My family all got killed in this invasion and my planet was destroyed. So I got taken in and placed with a foster family. I'm expected to be an Agent when I'm older"

"I travel in time too" Susan whispered. "Just me and Nan, my whole family is dead but her"

He noticed the distress in her voice and reached out through the gaps of the cell bars to take her hand. "Don't worry" he repeated. "I'm sure everything will be fine"

Susan fell asleep that night, cold, scared and worried but not alone as her hand was firmly in place in Jack's hand.

DWDWDWDWDWDWDWDWDWDWDW

Susan woke up to loud screams and shouts. Jack squeezed her hand to reassure her as someone pleaded for their life. The door slammed open and her grandmother stood there looking like the scariest thing in the universe as she dragged one of the slave traders by the ear.

"Susan" she said in relieve. "I was so worried about you" she pointed a pen at the door and a red light burnt a hole round the key hole, the door swung open and the Wolf let go of the man to hug Susan.

"Nan, there's another boy in the-"

The Wolf calmly pointed her pen at the other cell, letting Jack out. She then pointed the pen at the slave trader. "I'm not like my husband. There's no second chances" she shot a bright red light at his heart and he tumbled down dead.

"You killed him!" Jack yelped in shock. "How did you do that?!"

"Laser pen. Well it has a sonic alternative in it too, depends which button I press. I'm furious with these sick people. How many children have they sold off or killed or rape? I don't want to think of it! But they dared to take my grandchild and therefore they had to pay the consequences"

Susan had once read Little Red Riding Hood. In the fairy tale the grandmother got eaten by the Big Bad Wolf and Susan had a nightmare that her grandmother got eaten. At the time her Nan just laughed it off and told her it would never happen. Now she wandered if it was because her Nan was the Bad Wolf...

"T-t-thank you...for saving me" Jack said a little pale and terrified.

The Wolf leaned down and hugged him. "Think nothing of it. Where's your home? I'll take you there?"

"Oh Boeshane Pensuila...the Time Agency has put a satellite office to help the citizens that survived the attack" Jack said quickly. "It's not far from here, in the same Galaxy just on the other side really. A couple days journey"

"I'll make it a couple minutes" the Wolf promised.

And she did. The young boy was home and being hugged by a worried foster mother. He turned and gave Susan another heart fluttering grin.

"We'll meet again Susan! I'll be a time traveller and find you! We could be partners in fighting crime"

"Yeah, I'd like that" Susan muttered, blushing faintly.

The Wolf merely rolled her eyes and muttered something about Jack never changing, and being a ladies man. Susan didn't quite understand and she wondered if her grandmother had met Jack before.

She hoped that one day Jack could travel with them. If possible. Going to bed while dreaming of Jack, Susan forgot her grandmother's scary moment.

DWDWDWDWDWDWDWDWDWDWDW

The Wolf didn't let Susan out. Ever. After the slave trading incident Susan never saw natural daylight again for the next two years. Her grandmother had the TARDIS set up a garden and park for her but it wasn't the same. There were no children or animals and she felt lonelier than ever.

Her grandmother went out every so often. Sometimes she came back cheerful and bearing presents. Sometimes she came back grim and refused to talk beyond the average small talk. Susan felt a growing resentment to her grandmother for imprisoning her. Caging her in like she was some sort of delicate bird.

However...she never got her chance to confront her grandmother about it. Months after her seventh birthday, the TARDIS got pulled in by some sort of gravitational laser beam. A beam that belonged to another TARDIS.

Her grandmother stood there pale as a group of seven men and women in red robes and strange hats glared at her.

The man in front noticed her and gave her a chilling look. He had empty eyes and his face was blank as a clean sheet of paper. "You have a child" he said coldly.

"She is my grandchild" her grandmother said calmly. "The only one born with two hearts. We believe it to be a genetic fluke"

"A child that descended from the three worst things in the universe, Humans, Metacrisis' and an abomination" the man shot her a filthy look, his mask of emptiness gone as rage and loathing and disgust filled every inch of it. "A disgusting human who thought she could play with a Time and Dimension in Space, to play with the time vortex itself and make a mockery of all things Galifreyan. You are an abomination to all life"

"And you're worse than a dalek" her grandmother said frostily.

They all sneered down at her. "Wolf, you are charged of theft of a Time and Dimension in Space seed, breaking the barriers of universes, breaking into a Time and Dimension in Space, destroying the laws of physics and blemishing the Time Lord name. How do you plead?"

"I seem to have no choice but to say guilty" her grandmother said. Susan knew as well that these people were not going to let them go and leave it at that.

"You will be forced into regeneration and banished into this universe. Unable to ever return to the Master Universe where all Time Lords reside. You will have your custody of the child taken away from you and never be allowed to see her again. You are allowed this Time and Dimension in Space but this will be your only one"

"You will not take Susan away from me!" her grandmother snarled in her most scariest voice. The Time Lords seemed unbothered, though one or two had widened their eyes in fear. "I have been through hell for the Doctor. I ended your bloody Time War and helped stop all daleks and this is how you repay me? By taking the one last thing I have of my husband"

"We do not understand the word husband" a woman said coldly, taking Susan by the shoulder and dragging her towards the others.

"Nor do we know of any Time War" a man said equally cold.

The leader waved a dismissal hand. "Take the child now. We'll force the regeneration and then take our leave"

The two red robed people began to pull Susan away; she struggled, pulling away from them, her hands reaching out for her grandmother.

"Nan! Nan! Don't let them take me away! Don't let them! I don't want to go! Nan! Nan!"

"I'm sorry" her grandmother said.

The red robed men surrounded her grandmother; one was holding a needle with clear liquid in the syringe. They were going to kill her. They were going to do bad things to her Nan.

"Nan!" she screamed, tears rolling down her face. "Nan!"

"My Susan" her Nan said quietly. "Oh I do love you"

And then Susan was pulled away screaming and crying as the two red robed people shoved her in a spare, empty room. Locking the door firmly.

"Oh, Nan" Susan wept.

DWDWDWDWDWDWDWDWDW

He was a cold, old, wrinkly man. Long white hair with frosty blue eyes. He wore red robes like the others but he didn't suit them at all. He hobbled slightly and didn't seem to have the energy like her Nan did.

This was apparently her biological grandfather. Her Nan's husband. But he couldn't be, because he was dead. Nan told her that her husband died in a car accident. But here he stood, cold and scary looking.

"I don't understand" he said numbly. "I did not know that I had a child"

"You did and now they are dead. Their mother is dead and her family does not want her. You are her guardian now, Theta"

The man flinched. "I dislike that name"

"Doctor then. But it does not matter what your name is. All that matters now is that this is your grandchild and you should take care of her. Prepare her for Academy life. She will be eight in nine months"

The Doctor turned to her and looked at her. There was a little spark of something, she wasn't sure, maybe sympathy or affection or just plain curiosity. "I am the Doctor, your grandfather. What is your name?" he asked.

"Susan" she whispered.

He reached out and took her hand. Many breathes inhaled sharply around them, apparently touching was blasphemy or something here. Susan didn't care, she grew up being touched and held and loved.

"Beautiful name, come along now Susan. It's time to go home"

"Yes, Grandfather" she said obediently.

She would never call him an affectionate name. No Grandpa or Gramps or Granddad or even Poppa or Papa. He will be Grandfather because he was a cold man that took her away from her Nan. He may not have helped but he was her guard now. To make sure she never went back to that universe.

She glared at this cold man and wondered how the hell he ended up married to her Nan. And why did he leave her? Those questions, she believes, will never be answered.

She vowed, silently to herself, to not stay on this planet for long. She will find a way to leave and she will travel in time. She will find Jack and she will be happy damned the consequences.

She might even find Nan again.

DWDWDWDWDWDWDWDWDW

"Oh there you are Susan, I was wondering where you went off to"

Susan turned to see her history teacher at the doorway looking a bit relieved and worried. "Hello Miss Wright, would you like a cup of tea?"

"No thank you, Susan. I was just wondering how big this place is, I think Mr Chesterton had gotten lost again"

They shared a conspiring grin. "Well the TARDIS likes to make rooms and then move them about. She adapts to our wishes and needs while making anything she thinks is brilliant. My wardrobe gets bigger each day when she thinks something suits me"

"I wish I had a wardrobe at home that did that. Then I wouldn't have to waste money on new clothes" Barbra said as Susan sat down with her cup of tea. "Susan...i was curious...you said that your Grandfather was all you have. What happened to your family?"

Susan sighed. She should have known this would happen her teachers were far too curious for their own good. She took a sip of her tea and then looked up at Barbra, meeting her dark eyes with her own. "I don't know what happened to my parents. I was brought up by my grandmother until I was seven. The Time Lords took me away from her, said I didn't belong with her. They sent her away somewhere I can't reach and now I'm stuck here"

"That's terrible!" Barbra exclaimed. "But you are ok, aren't you? Your Grandfather takes good care"

"He'll never replace Nan...but yes. I have come to love him as one should for a grandparent, and he loves me like a grandchild. I wouldn't want to lose him"

Barbra leaned forward and took her hand. "Do you think you and your Grandfather will be with your Nan again?"

Susan considered it carefully. There had been so many things that had happened before and after her. It was all confusing and tied in webs. Timey Wimey her Nan once said...

"I think," she said quietly, "that Galifrey would have to fall and the Time Lords wiped out before Grandfather and Nan could meet again"

**Author Note: and that concludes the sequel to The Adventure of Being Normal. There will be a sequel to this, so keep an eye out for The Walk Alone which will follow Rose on her time alone after Susan. Please review! **


End file.
